The first green shoots of a recovery in Australian travel to the United States are beginning to emerge, with visitor numbers returning to growth after more than a year of decline and industry leaders confident the market has turned a corner.
Some 959,000 Australians visited the United States in 2025, a 6.5% decline on the previous year, while arrivals remained down 6.5% across the first half of 2026 when compared to last year.
However, June delivered the first monthly increase in more than 12 months, with Australian arrivals climbing 5.6% compared with the same month last year.
The positive result has led the US National Travel and Tourism Office to forecast Australian visitation will finish 2026 up 1.5% on last year before stronger growth through to 2030.
Speaking during a Visit USA Australia market update, Brand USA Trade Director Tristan Freedman said the market had been impacted by uncertainty surrounding changes to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
“There’s no getting around the ESTA entry requirement noise. It’s real and it’s been the main headwind that we’ve had to face,” Mr Freedman said.
“But the underlying demand is there. It’s a timing story, not a structural one and the World Cup should give it a further lift into the back half of the year.”
Responding to a question from Traveltalk, Mr Freedman said negative media coverage had contributed to the decline in Aussie visitation.
“Media sentiment has been a constant battle for us,” he said. “We’ve launched our Get Facts, Get Going campaign to counter some of the subjective media coverage.
“I believe it’s been a very unfair, unbalanced approach in a lot of consumer media. Over the last couple of months we’ve started to see that turn around, with some really positive news stories about the actual U.S. travel experience.
“The World Cup was almost like a reminder to everyone about what the USA is all about. The experience in the U.S. for travellers is fun, welcoming and hospitable, and everything that you read in the news doesn’t necessarily relate to the experience travellers actually get while they’re there.”
The industry’s focus will now shift to a busy calendar of trade events designed to maintain momentum.
The Visit USA Expo Series returns in February 2027, visiting Brisbane on February 15, Melbourne on February 16 and Sydney on February 17, before Brand USA’s B2B Day on February 18 and TravMedia’s IMM on February 19, both in Sydney.
Travel advisors can also look forward to two Visit USA webinar showcases, ‘American Icons’ on September 24 and ‘Cities, Culture and Comfort’ on November 9, while Visit USA will also participate in the upcoming Qantas Best Of North America Day in Sydney.
Mr Freedman said there were plenty of reasons to believe Australian demand for the United States would continue to strengthen.
“We’ve got a strong base of loyal, high value travellers. We just need to keep giving the trade reasons to be confident. The green shoots are there and we’re optimistic they’re the beginning of a much stronger recovery.”
Key Statistics: Australian Visitors To The USA
2025 visitors: 959,000 Australians
Largest age group: 55 to 64 years
Repeat visitors: 79%
Main reasons for travel: Holidays/vacations and visiting friends and relatives
Business travel: 13.4%
Average length of stay: Just over 18 nights
Top states visited: California, New York and Hawaii
Top cities: Los Angeles, New York and Honolulu
Most popular ports of entry: Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco, Dallas and New York
Likelihood of returning: 89% expect to visit again
